Glass bottles and glass jars are in every household around the world. The first glass appeared about 7000 B.C. Beads were made from natural glass such as obsidian, rock crystal, agate, or onyx. The first glass bottles were produced around 1500 B.C.
America's glass bottle and glass jar industry was born in the early 1600's when settlers in Jamestown built the first glass melting furnace. Glass bottles were expensive as the industry relied on individual glassblowers.
The invention of the automatic glass bottle blowing machine in 1903 changed the product into the commodity it has become today. It was now possible to mass produce glass bottles and glass jars which were uniform height, weight, and capacity.
The highly automated production lines of the modern era are capable of producing over 1,000,000 bottles a day.